Inevitable
by K. Ly
Summary: It's only a matter of time when you realize who's the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. ONE-SHOT with possible continuation.


Title: "Inevitable"

Author: K. Ly

Rating: PG

Standard disclaimer applies

AN: This one-shot popped into my head during the middle of the night as I struggled to go to sleep the night before an exam. I realize I haven't written anything in nearly six years, so forgive any grammatical errors.

****

It was inevitable. It had to happen one day, and that day was today. With the amount of time we spent together over the past two years at work and with our family, it was just inevitable. I stared into his dark blue eyes as he stared into my light blue ones with a small grin. We both knew what we wanted at that moment. It just had taken a longer amount of time than we both anticipated.

Mamoru and I were two peas in a pod when we were growing up. We grew up in the same social circles, as our parents were extremely wealthy with the establishment of their publishing company. We were…best friends, you could say. We knew enough secrets about each other to write an autobiography for each other. Then there was that disastrous sophomore year in high school when we decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend. The first six months were great but then the fighting began. We nagged and criticized each other about every stupid, inane detail. I complained that he didn't care about what I looked like, when he said I complained too much about what he looked like. I didn't appreciate it when he thought he could just blow me off when his guy friends wanted just an evening of video games and no girlfriends. Eventually we realized that we couldn't be a couple because we were friends for too long. Knowing each other too well wasn't helping our relationship. After that, our relationship fizzled. We separated into our respective cliques and by senior graduation we had become strangers. I thought the after party for the graduates would be the last time I would ever see Chiba Mamoru.

I was wrong.

We ended up meeting eight years later after I graduated from the University of Oxford in the UK. I had just come back to Japan to discuss the prospect of my hiring at our parents' publishing company and lo and behold, Mamoru was already an editor. It was uncomfortable at first, seated there in the conference room with nothing to say. Our fathers urged us to get reacquainted and talk about what we had been up to after eight years. We had dinner that night at our once favorite and usual arcade and diner. It was like old times again. Reminiscing about the pranks we used to pull on our parents and their friends at the Christmas parties and regaling about our failed relationships. Two weeks later, I accepted the position at the publishing company's art and design division and moved back home to Tokyo.

Over the next year or so, we had casual dinner and movie outings. One thing I noticed about our movie choices was that the movies were never about romance. It was always action films, foreign films, horror movies, or documentaries. I think Mamoru would have gouged his eyes out if I dragged him to a chick flick. We were friends again, but something was nagging me at the back of my mind. We had tried the boyfriend and girlfriend thing before and it just didn't work. We were too different…but then again, maybe this time it was a good thing. We both were more mature and wiser from those failed relationships we had during college. I thought perhaps, maybe we could try seeing each other again? But on a Sunday afternoon in a used bookstore, Mamoru made a startling revelation.

"After that whole fiasco, I'm convinced that I will never get married" he affirmed as he peered through a book.

I blinked at him. "Like never?" gesturing with my hands.

"Never," he confirmed placing the book back on the shelf. He walked over to the travel section.

"You can't let something like that drive you away from the institution of marriage," I chased after him.

He turned around. "Usagi. I'm just not into that lovey-dovey crap that seems to be taking over the world. Read my lips. I am never going to get married," he smiled.

Then again, "maybe not" to the whole seeing each other thing. I didn't push the topic of marriage from that day forward. Apparently he had his mind made up about the issue, and I've learned that when Mamoru made his mind up about something, it usually stuck.

But then everything changed between us at the family Christmas party. As was tradition during our childhood, our parents threw a holiday party for all of our family members and employees at the publishing company. Only this time it was bigger. Our relatives from Australia, America, and the UK came for the holidays, including my favorite cousins, Minako and Rei from London. They were basically my partners in crime while I was studying abroad. But those escapades are for another time. Something about Mamoru changed that evening. And it all was because of the damn mistletoe in the doorframe. You could tell that he was hesitant about the whole kissing thing. I think the pushes from the surrounding guests and hollering had something to do with it.

"Come on Mamoru! Kiss her! It's tradition!"

"Whoever thought that it would take a crowded room of drunk people in order to get him to kiss a gorgeous girl?"

They say you can tell everything about a person in a kiss. Who knew it said so much?

Fast forward to ten months later, when everything I thought I knew about Mamoru turned out to be a façade. He was a romantic. He was a hopeless romantic. Strolls in the park with hands intertwined, breakfast in bed, and late night chats over the phone. It was intimate and just so not the Mamoru that I thought he would be. I was surprised by his antics. How could this man change so much in a matter of months?

And that brings us to today. We were in the park discussing our latest reads and he said he had something to show me. He opened the blue velvet box eagerly and smiled. It was…breathtaking. A princess cut diamond with a sterling silver band was nestled in the deep blue velvet padding. "So?" he asked expectantly as if I knew what he would ask me.

At that moment, I knew what he wanted. And I knew what I wanted. I wanted him. Why did it take me so long to realize it? I smiled, knowing what the next words out of my mouth would be…

"Mina will love it. She is definitely going to say yes to your proposal."

Like I said, it was inevitable. I was just too late.

AN: I thought this was just going to be a one shot, but the more I read it, I realize its potential to become a full fledged story. If so, I will dedicate the time for it in the summer after my college graduation and before I begin my Master's degree. =)


End file.
